It pays to be the Pope; got 370,000 followers on Twitter

Even though he hasn't sent a single tweet yet, Pope Benedict had some 370,000 followers on Twitter today, a mere 24 hours after the Vatican unveiled his handle: @pontifex, Reuters reported.

The Vatican said on Monday Benedict will start tweeting on mostly spiritual topics from 12 December.

But the pope, leader of some 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, won't be following anyone but himself, the Vatican said.

The tweets will come primarily from the contents of his weekly general audience, Sunday blessings and homilies on major Church holidays. They will also include reaction to major world events, such as natural disasters.

The Vatican, whose website has been taken down by hackers in the past, said it has taken precautions to make sure the pope's certified account is not hacked. Only one computer in the Vatican's Secretariat of State will be used for the tweets.